Rejected Sick Leave (COMPIN & ISAPRE) in Chile

How medical leave works and why it gets rejected

In Chile a doctor issues a licencia médica, today usually electronic, and the worker notifies the employer. The employer then submits it to the body that administers the subsidy: COMPIN (Comisión de Medicina Preventiva e Invalidez) for members of the public health fund FONASA, or the worker's ISAPRE for private health plans. That body can approve, reduce or reject the leave. When it is rejected, the worker typically loses the sickness subsidy (subsidio por incapacidad laboral) for those days, and the days may be treated as unjustified absence.

Rejections happen for many reasons: late submission, the opinion that rest was not medically justified, a mismatch with the diagnosis, missing information or suspicion of irregularities. They are especially common with prolonged or mental-health leaves, and they hit foreign residents who are new to the system hard. The process has its own procedure, separate from the labor court. A rejected leave can also create tension with the employer, so our work often connects with dismissal and severance advice when the job itself is at stake.

What we handle

The appeal path and its deadlines

The sequence usually runs as follows. The worker has a short period, measured in working days, to deliver the leave to the employer, and the employer has a few working days to process it. If an ISAPRE rejects the leave, the worker can appeal to the competent COMPIN, again within a short period measured in working days from receiving the decision. SUSESO acts as the higher administrative body. In some cases, such as leaves rejected for being late, SUSESO can be asked to review directly and may accept proof of a fortuitous event or force majeure.

SUSESO's response can take weeks and, in complex cases, months. A negative decision may allow a request for reconsideration with new evidence, again within days. Courts have reviewed rejections in a number of cases through an action for protection, and recent Supreme Court decisions have both upheld rejections made without a new medical examination and ordered payment where the decision lacked a proper basis. We never promise a result, and we confirm the exact deadline for your decision before any other step.

What to gather and what to avoid

Strong appeals have a detailed medical report from the treating doctor, supporting exams or prescriptions, proof of when the leave was delivered and when the rejection was received, and a clear explanation of any delay. Dependent workers are often asked for recent payslips. Missing the notification date is a common mistake, because several deadlines run from it.

Things to avoid: returning to work or traveling without checking how it affects the leave, relying on a verbal assurance from the employer, and using leaves that are not medically justified. Fraudulent leaves create serious consequences, including dismissal and criminal exposure, and we do not take cases built on them. Foreign doctors' certificates are not handled like Chilean electronic leaves, so anyone who falls ill abroad should seek advice before relying on them.